A review by kazuchuu
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

3.0

"Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards."

3/5

This review can also be found on my blog!

*holds hands up*

I know, I know. Everyone and their mother seems to love The Raven Boys-Gansey with his undying passion, Ronan with his fierce personality, Adam with his hardworking nature, Noah with his silent gentleness, Blue with her smart witticism. Don't get me wrong, I came to love them, too, it's just...it took a while.

A synopsis (spoiler-free!): Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics. Her mother, for example, has customers occasionally coming in for a reading, and every year she goes to a churchyard to see the soon-to-be-dead, taking Blue with her. Blue doesn't possess any of these abilities, but merely makes others' abilities "stronger"-hence why her mother takes her.

One year, however, everything changes. She sees, for the first time, a soul with her very own eyes; one she is able to directly communicate with. His name is Gansey, and, according to what we're told, Blue can see him because he's destined to be her "true love"-except here's the problem.

If Blue kisses her true love, he will die.

Blue attempts to stay away from Gansey-he's an Aglionby boy, after all, and those could only be trouble. However, she becomes inexplicably drawn to him, as well as the rest of the gang: Ronan, Adam, and Noah. Gansey's passion to find an ancient, "sleeping" Welsh king piques her interest, and before she knows it, she's in for the ride of her life with these boys.

Okay, so here's the thing: when I read the summary, I was confused.

Not about what the book's main idea was, but as to why there were a lot of five-star ratings, because the whole "don't kiss your true love or he'll die!" business just...I mean...



Doesn't that make Blue and Gansey "star-crossed lovers"? The typical "we can't be together because we could get imprisoned/punished/killed!" sorta thing?

But, okay, I said to myself. Maybe everything else about the book is so great that people didn't really mind that bit. Or maybe it's written so well that it doesn't feel annoying to read.

So I started the book (this was a buddy-read, by the way, with the awesome Rebekah!) with a positive outlook. Actually, now that I think about it, a bit too positive-I'd heard a lot of great things about it that I think it affected me, because, at the start, everything just irked me.

The characters, the plot, everything. And I didn't even know why! I found Blue to be such a nuisance, Gansey's whole "concerned" attitude to be a bit fake, Ronan's reactions wild and irrational, and Adam way too much of an over-thinker. Probably the only character I didn't dislike much was Noah, and that's because he barely said or did anything at the start (that ain't criticism by the way, he's just so quiet-for a good reason, though.)

Halfway through the book, I was starting to get bored. Everything just moved too slow, and while you had those little developments here and there, I had no clue when something major would happen. 

Something major does happen by the way, but I had to wait, like, two hundred pages for it. It was just too slow-paced. Some parts were confusing as well. The first few chapters talked about "ley lines" and "dowsing", and I had absolutely no clue what they were on about.

But then...suddenly, after the action started happening...trust me when I say, I don't know what went down, but I kid you not that I suddenly discovered I love them.

YEAH. IT'S WEIRD. I KNOW. How do you suddenly switch from practically despising a character to loving them?! Don't ask me. All I now know is that I adore them all, especially Noah (quiet/shy/observant guys are my weakness) and Ronan (I love how he acts all tough, but actually cares a lot.)

The writing itself isn't bad, by the way. I actually like Stiefvater's style-it's pleasant to read and gets a good laugh out of you, too.

My point about the book being slow-paced and a little perplexing still stands, though. That, and also: there is no diversity at all.

See, I'm the kind of person who just can't give five-stars to a book if it doesn't have some form of diversity. Even if the plot is clever, the writing beautiful, and the characters endearing, I just need there to be a different variety of people. It only makes sense. We live in a diverse world, after all, and everyone you know just can't be of the same nationality, sexuality, or have the same physical and mental capabilities.

I know that Stiefvater apologised for this, which I really respect. It's darn courageous of her to do that. But still.